1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a fishing reel of the type including a spool for receiving the fishing line, the spool being moved to and fro in the direction of its winding axis (spool travel) by means of a cam drive, the cam drive including a gear, a cam stud eccentrically mounted on the gear, a guide plate mounted to the spool via a spindle, shaft, or the like, and a guide slot in the guide plate for engagement with the rotating cam stud to drive the spindle or shaft to and fro in its longitudinal direction.
2. Description of Related Art
A straight guide slot was offered in previously known designs for the above type of fishing reel. While such a design has been found practical for narrow spools, if the width of the spool must be made larger to permit more fishing line to be wound onto the same diameter of spool core, outwardly projecting bulges may form at the two end zones of the line winding because of changes in spool speed caused as the spool approaches the reversing positions of the spool travel path. The width must be further enlarged if the spool core diameter is to be made larger without thereby enlarging the spool diameter, i.e., the diameter of the outer line winding, because otherwise the line capacity would be decreased. The bulge formation takes place as the travel or stroke speed drops down to zero at the cam stud reversing positions, i.e., at the end positions of the reciprocating spool stroke, because the amount of line wound per unit time by the winding flange of the fishing line onto the spool will not decrease but remain constant, regardless of which position the spool assumes in the travel direction. When the fishing line plus bait is cast, the bulge causes the problem of "clinging", i.e., the line cast from the spool drags along adjacent line turns. This leads to the so-called wig formation as the excess line dragged along by clinging hangs loose and tangles. In turn, this leads to delicate casting, subject to interference.
To avert the above drawbacks, a fishing line was proposed in FIG. 4 of the German Gebrauchsmuster 70 06 743, in which the reciprocating spool assembly includes a cam drive guide slot curved in such a way that the stroke speed of the guide part increases at the reversing positions of the stroke path and at least partly drops at the side positions approximately half-way between the two reversing positions along the circular path of the cam stud so that the backward and forward stroke speeds of the guide part are nearly equal at the half-way positions. According to the description of the Gebrauchsmuster 70 06 743, a uniformly oscillating stroke, and thereby the desired rectilinear contour of the fishing line, is achieved. The guide slot provided for this purpose has a figure-8 curve, but the insides of the 8 do not touch and are spaced apart.
The figure-8 design suffers from a large axial play of the cam stud in the guide slot when at the end positions. Self-locking of the cam stud in the guide slot arises at these side positions or points. As a result, the cam stud jams and warps in the guide slot, and the force exerted by the drive gear on the cam stud when it is in the side positions cannot be converted into a corresponding motion of the guide slot and hence of the travel. In other words, at the guide slot side positions, axial play prevents continuity of the motion sequence for the cam stud in the slot. Accordingly, this previously known device is not practical. Other drawbacks are bulk and a comparatively slight travel.
The German Gebrauchsmuster 70 07 657 discloses a fishing reel as initially discussed herein in relation to the state of the art, with a rectilinear guide slot. In the illustrative embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 of this document 70 07 657, a drive gear with an eccentric stud engages a rectilinear guide slot of an intermediate part in the form of a travel or stroke converter. This stroke converter in turn consists of a guide slot in the shape of a slight S and is entered by a pin of the spool spindle. Accordingly, the controlling force from the drive gear must be converted by means of two guide slots into a corresponding stroke of the spool spindle.
Drawbacks of this arrangement include friction along the two guide slots, which may lead to jamming and locking the system, high device complexity resulting in increased cost, and bulkiness resulting from use of an intermediate part. Therefore, the design of FIGS. 3 and 4 of the German Gebrauchsmuster 70 07 657 is disadvantageous in comparison with a device wherein a single guide slot is provided in a single guide part affixed to the spool spindle. While a fishing-line reel with the line-drum remaining fixed is known from the German patent 917,528, the reel does not include an angled slot guide and only serves the specific function of allowing rotation the drive crank in one direction. Disadvantageously, the speed of the forward and backward spool strokes are different. This device precludes achieving neat and uniform winding contours.